ALBERT BATES On Where Activism Meets Counterculture /10
Albert Bates has been the director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and the Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm in Tennessee since 1994 where he has taught sustainable design, natural building, permaculture and restoration ecology to students of more that fifty nations. Albert regales us with his charisma, discussing the miracle of biochar, which can trap carbon while building soil and reversing desertification. We tie carbon farming into the wider climate movement and talk about breaking the cycle of climate denial. Albert discusses the joys of communal living, the interesting relationship they have with money, and the fate of nuclear energy, and the importance of celebration amid the madness.